


My Navy

by Punk_Grape



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-03-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:20:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23102365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Punk_Grape/pseuds/Punk_Grape
Summary: This is a collection all in one place of one of my first OCs, Navy.
Kudos: 4





	My Navy

**Author's Note:**

> Now, Navy has changed over time, he’s mellowed out a bit, but still is the grumpy gremlin. I wrote this two years ago, so much has changed.

Navy 

Rider glanced at the Glooga Dualies in his hands, then quickly looked at the Deca Tower; he had to train, and he refused to ask anyone he knew to train him with the Dualies, they were either too annoying or too full of themselves. Random battles would give him the training he needed, as he wouldn’t have to worry about cooperating too much with the teammates there; random battles were known for a lack of cooperation, if anything. Ignored instructions, painting each other’s backs instead of the ground, all rushing in the same direction, that was better suited to train with the Gloogas than with his teammates. An inkling leaning against the wall of the lobby, a shorter boy, had the most bored look Rider had seen all week, even compared to himself; he might as well go ask if he’d like to join a random battle with him, since he couldn’t see any signs of possible teammates nearby. 

The inkling against the wall was short for his age, which unfortunately only added to the teasing and quips he got from others; he unfortunately was the brunt of most bullying, mostly because of his gear. The boy held Squelcher Dualies in his hands as they crossed his chest, he wore a Navy Eminence jacket and Navy Enperrials, and an Annaki Mask over his mouth and nose; he was picked on for being, as others called him, an ‘Emperor Wannabe’, and he hated it. It didn’t help that he despised said inkling, who always went out of his way to point him out. “Oh, look, it’s my cute, little shadow.” How that irked the little inkling, who just wanted to battle in peace. 

His eyes caught movement towards him, and he noted Rider approaching him from the Square; that was unusual, not many actively sought him out. “Hello?” he asked, in a tone that matched his bored expression. 

Rider gave a polite smile and a small wave. “I was wondering if you’d like to join up for a random battle? I need practice, and you look bored. Name’s Rider.”

The other inkling nodded, he wasn’t wrong with saying he was bored. “Name’s Navy,” he said, and waited for the usual teasing or quips, but they never came. “You need practice?”

“Yeah, with Dualies. I don’t use them and want to at least be able to handle them.”

Navy smirked, but Rider couldn’t see it behind the mask. “You’re welcome to join me, but know that I’ll not be giving up the top spot.”

‘Top spot? What does he mean?’ Rider gave him a questioning look, but decided to let it be for the time being; they had a battle to jump into. 

They stood at one end of Port Mackerel, with two other random inklings on their team, while four stood at the opposite end; Navy was pleased with the stage, it wasn’t a bad one to practice Dualies on, which is what Rider had said he wanted. 

The match began, and Navy rolled forward once, then back to his original position, to gain the boosted ink so that he could cover their entire spawn quickly. The distance of his particular weapon combined with the amount of ink saver abilities he had, made for a quick and effortless job of covering every inch. Their two teammates had gone down the middle, so Rider had taken one of the upper paths, which left the last one open for Navy. He wasn’t very far along when he’d inked enough to use his special, so he super jumped back to the spawn and pulled out the missile launcher; the stage was perfect for that special, if he stood at the spawn, he’d always catch all four of the enemies in his sights. 

Rider watched for a moment as the Tenta Missiles soared across the stage, headed for their targets. With a shake of his head, he rolled forward once, and started to cover the ground below him, though his Dualies were far slower than Navy’s; his would be akin to the .gal series. He saw said inkling across the way, and occasionally watched his movements; roll forwards then back, back and side, side to side, Navy moved everywhere rapidly. 

What Rider couldn’t see was the grin on Navy’s face, the little inkling was having a blast with his Dualies; it didn’t matter to Navy if the team lost, as long as he got top of the team, he was happy. Rider tried to copy the movements, but he was too slow and got splatted almost immediately after one dodge. A frown settled on his face as he jumped to a teammate, he was used to training with slower weapons, but the dualie class was a fast one, through and through; at least from what he’d read. Determined to not make that same mistake again, Rider began to use his dodges carefully, since he couldn’t bounce around like Navy could. 

The match was over, and they had won by a large amount; Navy had gotten top of the team, as he wanted, and had not been splatted once. Rider stood there with his eyebrows knitted together, Navy was unusual, he’d give him that. “That was fun,” he offered, and the shorter one nodded silently in agreement. “If you’d like-“ 

“Look, my two favourite inklings,” a familiar voice came from behind the two, and they both shuddered on instinct. “My cute little shadow and Rider, playing together are you?” It was Emperor, and both of them had a heated distaste for the proclaimed king. 

Navy didn’t want to give Emperor the time of day, but as he went to sneak off, Rider’s hand shot out and grabbed his collar. With a tug, he yelped as Rider pulled him back to the conversation. “He was helping me practice, because I sure wasn’t asking you.”

“You think he can teach you anything? That boy is nothing but a mere shadow of me,” Emperor goaded, he wanted to see how far he could push them. 

A silent plea was made by Navy for Rider to stop, but the inkling didn’t. “A mere shadow,” he snorted. “Please, I watched him the entire battle, he could roll circles around you.” Navy squeezed his eyes shut, why did Rider have to say that? 

“I’m offended by the mere mention of that.” He turned to Navy and leered at him. “Alright, let’s settle this, little shadow of mine. And Rider, the stakes?”

He sent a glare at Emperor, but answered regardless. “If Navy wins, you leave us alone.”

Emperor grinned, it would be a cakewalk, beating Navy. “When I win, I’ll be training you. Both of you.” 

Navy paled, he didn’t want to subject himself to Emperor even further; he was annoyed at Rider for getting him into this mess. “Don’t I get a say if I’m the one battling?”

“Of course, you’re welcome to decline and continue on your merry way. But it will be known you were too scared to take me on.” A smirk settled on his face, he knew Navy too well for him to back down, and the glare he got was confirmation. “Excellent. Let’s say, Walleye Warehouse?” He got no resistance from either of them, and the three set out for their private battle. 

Rider stood in the viewing area with his arms crossed; he had seen Navy battle, he was fairly confident that he could beat Emperor, plus he knew the smaller inkling really didn’t want to be near him any longer than he had to be. Still, the only team to have beaten Emperor was Blue team, and that was by a hair. Navy, in all senses, had the upper hand; he seemed to move faster, his range was farther, and he seemed to rarely run out of ink. 

Navy stood at his spawn as he waited for the battle to start, and reminded himself to never interact with Rider again. “I really don’t want to do this,” he muttered, and second later, the battle began. Navy worked his way down the ramp rapidly, then rolled right twice to cover the upper edge, and sunk into his ink when finished; he planned to ink both side routes, then take the middle. As he inked, he held onto his special, he wanted to wait until he was about to confront Emperor to use them, then use his dodging as an opportunity to attack. 

Emperor, however, had a different plan in mind; why bother inking the side routes in a one on one turf war? He advanced up the middle, he’d seen Navy’s plan from the moment he rolled right, and knew he could counter it easily; like Navy, he held onto his special for the time being, he wanted to keep the little inkling pinned at his spawn. When Navy saw the yellow ink completely covering the centre, he super jumped back to spawn to quickly start his way to confront Emperor. 

He didn’t have far to go, Emperor was waiting for him on the raised platform below the ramp at the spawn; on instinct, Navy used his special, and lined up with Emperor. The other, however, quickly dodged towards him, and used the opportunity to splat him; Navy wasn’t happy about wasting his special. He set out from his spawn, and managed to avoid Emperor once, before he was splatted again. 

Navy lost count how many times he was splatted, he was too embarrassed to continue before the match even ended; with a little over a minute left, he simply dropped his weapons and sat on his spawn, humiliated beyond belief. Emperor watched in amusement as Navy sat there, head hung low and hands covering his face; he didn’t expect his shadow to give up so easily, he’d have to teach him to not give up, too. “You win, like you always do.” Navy let out a long sigh, “Whatever you have in mind for me, I’ll do.” 

It was nice to see Navy admitting defeat, if Emperor were honest. He bent over and looked at the little inkling until he looked up. “All I have in store is some well deserved training for you both.” Navy cast a quick glare at Rider, who was walking towards them. “But for you, my little shadow, I have something extra. Never quit a battle.”

Rider’s shoulders were lowered, he’d actually thought Navy stood a chance; it was a stupid mistake he was sure he wouldn’t make again. “Just give us a time and place,” Rider snapped, he wasn’t looking forward to it any more than Navy was. 

“Tomorrow morning, dawn, meet me in the square.” Rider gave a nod, but Navy groaned; he hated the whole situation. Getting put against Emperor, against his will. Getting taught by Emperor, again, against his will. Getting up before the sun. The little inkling sent a glare to Rider before he stormed off; he just needed some time to relax, is what Navy told himself as he went home. 

-

The next day, it couldn’t even be considered morning yet, arrived, and Navy wore a permanent frown on his face the entire way to the square; to make matters worse, Emperor stood there with his signature smirk, and even Rider seemed to be awake and functioning. These inklings were insane, being that awake that early, there should be a rule against waking up before dawn, Navy thought as he frowned at the two before him. 

“There you are, you were almost late, shadow of mine.” Navy didn’t react to the name, he was already as annoyed as he was going to get. “Someone’s not happy.” Emperor got a ‘no duh’ look from Navy, but he stayed quiet, he didn’t want to give Emperor anything else to go on. “Hmph, a bit rude aren’t we?” Still nothing. “Fine, follow me.” 

The three inklings made the quick journey to the training grounds, where Emperor set them up against each other. “Roll towards each other and fire until you run out of ink.” He wanted to see two things; how much ink Navy was able to save during battles, and to see Rider outdone. Both rolled forward twice, then began to fire ink; Rider knew what Emperor was doing, and he was getting annoyed with him. Navy, however, closed his eyes and yawned while he fired, since it would take a while for his tank to empty. 

Emperor noted the closed eyes, and rolled his own. “If you can’t stay awake, I’ll make sure you do.” Eyes snapped open, and Emperor nodded. “Better.” When Navy had finally run out of ink, he let his Dualies clatter to the ground; again, it was way too early to be using them. Navy didn’t care anymore, he was annoyed and tired; he made for the exit. “Where are you going?”

“Home, so I can sleep.”

A frown crossed Emperor’s face, but quickly morphed into a smirk. “If you see this through, I won’t call you my cute little shadow anymore.”

That stopped Navy in his tracks, Emperor knew it would. “What would you call me, then?”

“If you actually have the guts to see this through, I’ll respect you enough to use your name.” Navy liked the sound of that, no more ‘cute little shadow’, just Navy; he nodded and returned to his spot. “That’s better. Now,” Emperor began, and turned to look at Rider. “Your stance is completely off balance, your rolls leave so much to be desired, and your aim is awful.” He returned to looking at Navy. “You rely too much on your ink capacity, not enough on your aim. Rolls are good, but stance is a bit off.”

Both inklings looked at him with distaste, neither liked being told everything they did was wrong, especially Navy, who had been using dualies for a while. “My stance is fine, I always get top of the team, and rarely ever get splatted, so my aim is pretty good,” he argued. 

“You avoid confrontation,” Emperor countered, and Rider was content to simply watch them. “I’ve seen your battles, and all the mistakes you make in them. You only aim to ink the most turf on your own, and avoid anyone if you can.” 

Navy glared up at Emperor. “I do fine on my own.” He didn’t come along just to be berated by him. “Your teaching method sucks,” he hissed. 

“I’ll choose to ignore that. Go roll towards a target, and try to make it so you stop with your sights on it. Don’t stop until you do. Rider, let’s get started.” 

The day was long, and while Navy was sure he was better, Emperor wasn’t convinced. “Same time and place tomorrow,” he instructed, then turned on his heel and left. 

Rider could feel the glare he was getting, but was to exhausted to return it. “Look, I’m sorry I thought you were a capable inkling. Clearly I was wrong.”

Navy scowled. “Clearly, Rider. Next time, don’t be a wimp and offer up someone else to fight your battles.” 

The two sat there, exhausted from the day, but annoyed at the other; Rider was no wimp, and Navy was more than capable in battles. 

“After this is over, if I don’t see either of you ever again, it would be too sweet.”

Rider only nodded, he wasn’t a fan of Navy, but didn’t have the knee jerk reaction he had to Emperor. “You’re nothing compared to him.” The smaller inkling knew he wasn’t talking about skill, but rather, the annoyance Emperor caused. 

“That’s actually a compliment, for once,” Navy breathed out; he wanted to go home and sleep, but was still too tired to move. “Why does he feel the need to torment me.”

Rider snorted. “Because you really do look like his shadow. Plus, you’re an easy target.”

“Easy target,” Navy repeated in a grumble; he didn’t ask for any of this. “Oh, how I hate that guy.”  
~~  
A week later, Navy leaned against a target, the synthetic material felt nice to his exhausted mind. “Okay, please tell me,” he huffed, trying to catch a breath. “Please tell me we’re done for today.” He hung his head when he saw the smirk Emperor had. 

“You’ve almost got it.”

“You’ve said that for the past two days,” he grumbled. 

Emperor crossed his arms. “And you have almost had it for two days, you just aren’t progressing.” 

“Maybe if you were the target, I’d actually hit the mark,” he commented, and Rider snorted at Emperor’s expense. 

The yellow inkling sighed, then put a hand on his face. “Just...” Another sigh, these two were trying. “Just keep practicing. Rider,” he snapped, scaring the inkling, which had the gloogas clattering to the ground. “Get back to work.”

Rider only gave his weapons half of his attention, and stopped completely when he watched Navy. The short inkling had waited until Emperor had turned his attention to Rider, and backed up quietly; in two quick rolls forward, Navy had lined up perfectly and pelted Emperor in the back with green ink. 

The look he had gotten was priceless, shock and annoyance clear across the king’s face, and Rider was snorting at him. “What do you think you’re doing, Navy?” he asked quietly, which hushed both of them. 

The little inkling grinned. “Finishing my training. I rolled and hit you perfectly, and you called me by my name, Emperor.” If looks could kill, he’d be six feet under. “Thank you for the lessons, they’ve been enlightening. Good luck, Rider.” 

As he made his way to the exit, Emperor was quick to block his path. “You’re done, when I say you are.” 

“I am done, I’ve perfected every little nit picky thing you’ve pointed out.” Navy continued forward, until he was inches from Emperor, and stood on his toes to try and get in his face. “You just don’t want to lose any power over me, don’t you. I am absolutely sick of you, good bye.” He returned to his feet, and left a cackling Rider and a stunned Emperor behind. 

“You,” he said, finally snapping out of it, and looked at Rider. “You and I are a long ways away from being done, dear Rider.” 

Navy was quick to head back to the square; exhausted from his training, the boy collapsed into a chair near the Crust Bucket, his squelchers tossed haphazardly onto the table. “I’m finally free,” he said to himself. “I never want to see either of them again.” His stomach growled, and he looked at the line up for food; it was either wait in line, or head home, and Navy didn’t want to head home just yet. 

He knew he’d feel sore later, Emperor had pushed him far past his limits, and decided to get food as soon as he could. As he stood in line, he began to notice a distinctive lack of name calling about him; normally it was background noise, but now it was silent. When he got to the counter, his ears picked up a bit of conversation from the inklings around him. 

“Dude, it’s hilarious, you gotta watch it.”

“Isn’t that the wannabe kid?” Laughter. “Look at his face!” 

Navy had no clue what it was about, all he knew was that it was possibly about him; he never heard of another ‘wannabe’. He grabbed his food and went back to the table he had his Dualies on; it didn’t bother him if they were talking about him, he was used to it. 

Just after he took off his mask to start eating, the chair opposite him was dragged out, then another inkling sat down. Another inkling? “You’re that wannabe kid, yeah?” Navy sighed with a nod, and put down his food; he just wanted to eat. “What you did was hilarious, just saying.”

“Hilarious? I don’t understand,” Navy questioned, he wasn’t sure what the other was talking about. To answer the question, the other inkling slid his phone across the table; to Navy’s horror, it turned out Rider had recorded the entire thing, and posted it to the web. 

“Emperor’s face was so funny the moment you hit him in the back.” 

Navy pushed the phone away. “Maybe,” he mumbled. ‘Though that wasn’t very nice of Rider to post it.’ The inkling opposite him stayed put, and Navy gave him a weird look. 

“Oh! Right, I was gonna introduce myself. My name is Hunter, and I think you’re great.” 

“Navy. Nice to meet you, Hunter.” Navy felt awkward; he wasn’t very good at socializing, and it all came at the expense of another, even if Emperor deserved it. He picked up his food to try and eat, but again was interrupted. 

Hunter had put his hand down on the table, hard. “You looked like you were really good in the video. Wanna do some turf wars with me?” 

“Pass. I don’t do teams.” 

“Then how do you get anywhere? Teamwork is vital for winning.”

Navy was quickly tiring of the conversation. “I only strive to be the best for myself, less to worry about. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to eat and go home to sleep for a century.” His tactless manners didn’t shake Hunter, who seemed determined to stay at the table. “Please leave?” 

Hunter rolled his eyes. “I’m trying to make friends; heck, even Emperor has them.” 

Half lidded, unimpressed eyes looked between the food and Hunter; Navy wasn’t getting anywhere. “Fine, I’ll try to be a friend, but don’t hold me back.”

-

Navy soon found out he needn’t worry about Hunter holding him back; the inkling knew what he was doing with his N’zap 89, and they were quick to find a balance. While Navy had the quick rolls and ink saver mains, Hunter had his swim speed boosted and his ink recovery up; both worked together with ease, much to the former’s surprise. Never had Navy worked well with anyone, but there he was, grinning mid battle as both he and Hunter used their Tenta Missiles in quick succession to trap their opponents. 

He didn’t want to admit it at first, but he had grown to like Hunter well enough to hoping they were on the same team; Navy still disliked the idea of a team, no matter how hard Hunter pushed it. “Navy, come on, two more teammates wouldn’t hurt.” 

They were leaned against Ammo Knights, Navy had been contemplating getting the Custom Squelcher Dualies, and had asked Hunter to help him decide. “I don’t do teams, Hunter. We’ve been over this, now are you going to help me decide, or still insist on a team?” He wasn’t feeling great that day, something had bugged him when he’d gotten up that morning, though Navy couldn’t explain what was bothering him. “Sorry.” 

Hunter just grinned at him, a playful look in his eye. “I know how much you were wanting a bomb as a sub. Get the customs, then you and I can practice in a one on one.” Navy gave his friend a nod, and the two walked into the busy shop. 

Navy’s ink ran cold the moment he caught a flash gold out of the corner of his eye; he couldn’t understand why Emperor was in the weapons shop, didn’t he use the Enperry Dualies solely? Thankfully, he was over by the Splattershot display, so Navy grabbed Hunter and made a beeline for the Dualies. 

Before him was a gleaming pair of new Custom Dualie Squelchers, the polished red reflecting the overhead lights. “Hello beautiful,” he muttered, then picked them up; they just felt right in his hands, nothing could compare to them. As Hunter left to go find Sheldon, who was lost between all the inklings, a shadow loomed over Navy. ‘Oh no, not this again.’ 

“Picking up a new set, Navy?” True to his word, Emperor had called him by his name, though to the small inkling, it still held a mocking tone. “Need any help practicing after?” The way Emperor had suggested it, Navy couldn’t tell if it were a joke, or if he really wanted to boss him around again. 

Before his brain could connect to his mouth, he was already responding. “Why, did you miss me or something?” He replied with a self satisfied grin on his face. 

Yellow eyes narrowed at him, Navy was being different; gone, it seemed, were the days of trying to wiggle out of a confrontation. “I was merely offering my assistance, not many inklings get that honour,” he hissed. 

“I’m flattered, truly.” Out of the corner of his eye, Navy saw Hunter waving him down. “Goodbye,” Navy sang as he brought the new Dualies over to the shop keeper. 

Hunter was giving Navy a concerned look. “What did he want?” 

The smaller boy sighed as he paid for the Dualies. “Me to lose my chill, but I really don’t have time for that, you and I have to practice.” 

“About that...” 

Navy’s face fell slightly. “What?” 

“I was just thinking, it’d be better if we had more to train with.” 

“Hunter,” the small inkling crossed his arms. “They’re the exact same weapon, just with a different sub and special, which is what I want to train. Wait-“

The other frowned. “I just think it would be beneficial.” 

“I’m not going on a team, Hunter. Take it or leave it, I’m not changing my stance.” 

Hunter knew he was fighting a losing battle; he’d learned rather quickly just how stubborn Navy was. “Alright. Just you and me, then?” 

To that, Navy grinned slightly. “Yeah, just us. Besides, no one really likes me,” Navy laughed at his own expense. 

“I like you,” Hunter said without thought, then quickly caught up to himself. “You’re a good friend.” 

“You’re a good friend, too, Hunter. Well, you are my first friend,” he admitted, he just never felt the need for a friend. “So, where should we train?”

Hunter tapped his chin, he hadn’t really thought of a good place to train yet. “I suppose we could train in the training grounds, since they are for that specifically.” He noted the shudder Navy gave at the mention of that place, and was fast to correct himself. “Or we could go to the Reef?”

“Yeah, the Reef sounds good.”

-  
The sunlight reflected off the metal chairs scattered around the Square, blinding the occasional inkling that walked past. Navy shielded his eyes as he and Hunter walked by, they were headed towards the tower; something else reflected in the sunlight, it was gold instead of silver. Both boys watched as Emperor crossed the Square, headed towards the sketchy back alley on the left, head held high as always. Hunter’s eyes widened when he realized his friend had changed direction. “Navy, no.”

The shorter one grinned behind his mask. “Navy, yes,” he replied, and continued on his way; Hunter had a bad feeling about this. In no time at all, the two had arrived at a gloomy storefront, and peered inside; all sorts of items lay scattered about, netting covered the floor, causing the boys to trip into the place. “Woah.” 

“Right on time, kids!” The sudden voice scared the two, who couldn’t see anyone but Emperor, a smirk ever present. “Couple of greenhorns, huh? You’ll need training.” Hunter had tracked the voice to a radio shaped like a bear, but how could the person see them? 

Emperor had been waiting for this moment, getting the opportunity to train inklings for a shift; his smirk changed into a simple grin, he knew what horrors might await them, and was more than happy to find out if the boys could handle it. “Ready to ship out you two?” He asked, but either could nod, someone crashed into the store. 

The three watched as an inkling, small in stature like Navy, stood up slowly, rubbing his head. “Ow. I’m here for training, too!” He received raised eyebrows from the three others, but ignored them as he made his way over to stand beside Hunter. “I’m Tumeric,” he said with a friendly smile, and waited to see if anyone else would reply. 

“Navy.”

Hunter laughed and leaned his arm on Navy’s shoulder. “Name’s Hunter.” 

‘Great, another kid,’ Emperor thought as he stared at Tumeric, who seemed unfazed by the stare. “I’m Emperor,” he said with a huff. “Let’s go, before I have an entire class.”

The four had left, and it was just getting to dusk when their boat arrived. The three trainees looked around in awe, never had they experienced an environment like that; the air was muggy, the water surrounding the land was a disgusting, murky green, and the stench. Navy was so thrilled to be wearing his mask as he and Emperor watched the others plug their noses. “It smells awful here,” Hunter said, though it came out strange from him pinching his nose. 

“I know,” Tumeric replied, but soon released his nose. “If I’m gonna work here, gotta get used to it.” The small inkling took in a deep breath, but managed to keep a smile on his face. 

Emperor looked at them all, so unprepared for what lies ahead. “Let’s quickly run over what we have to work with.” He received three quick nods. “Navy and I have Dualies, Hunter has a Splattershot, and Tumeric-“

The boy grabbed his weapon and hugged it with a big grin on his face. “I’ve got the Heavy Splatling.”

“... Right. We all have our basic splat bomb, no gear abilities of any kind,” he said, and Navy got very uncomfortable very quickly; no ink savers for him. “A special you can only use twice for our entire shift, but we all have different ones.” 

The four super jumped to the little area of land they’d be working at and landed in a puddle of ink. “I’m assuming you know what we’re after here?” The three shook their heads, and Emperor sighed. “We’re here to collect-“

“Look, it’s a Salmonid! It’s so small,” Hunter said as he ran over to investigate the creature. 

Another sigh came from Emperor. “I wouldn’t go near it, or else-“ He was cut off by a yelp; Hunter had been shoved into the water by the Salmonid. “Or else that will happen.” With a quick fire, he splatted the creature, then shot at Hunter’s life preserver when it popped up. “If you get splatted or hit into the water, you’ll need to find a teammate.”

The three nodded again, understanding what they needed to do. “Now, we’re here to collect eggs, golden ones to be exact. Not sure why, I don’t ask.”

“So we splat Salmonids to get eggs, that sounds easy,” Navy commented. 

He got a face full of ink from Emperor. “Idiot. The gold ones drop from tougher ones. Like that,” he nodded to his left, and three spun around to come face to face with a Steelhead. They began to panic, how did it sneak up on them? They began to fire their weapons at its body, but couldn’t get through its armour. “Done yet?” Emperor had gone to a raised area and quickly fired at the Steelhead as it puffed up the balloon. 

As the Steelhead died, three glowing golden eggs floated down to the ground. “Those are what you’re after, those are what you need to complete your shift.” He hopped down as the three went to retrieve an egg each. “Next step, put it in the basket.” They did as instructed, and he nodded; at least they were still there, they weren’t running away in fear, yet. “All I can say is always stay aware of your surroundings.”

They nodded again, and began to watch as more enemies started to make their way towards them. “Don’t just stand there, go.” Emperor had a feeling he’d be reviving them a lot during that shift, something he wasn’t overly fond of doing; with another sigh, he split off with Hunter, at least he could stand that one. 

Navy and Tumeric grouped together and made their way quickly down to the shoreline, where a Stinger had appeared. Navy had to keep the chum and small fry off of Tumeric as he charged his splatling; when he released the built up ink, the pots flew out in all directions, and the salmonid landed on the burner base before it could target one of the two further away. It dropped three gold eggs, like the Steelhead had before, and the two quickly made to run their eggs back to the basket. 

By the time they had returned to get the last egg, the spotted a salmonid holding it as it jumped into the water; they had little time to mourn the loss of the egg, as both boys heard the familiar sound of being locked onto by a missile launcher. A green circle followed Tumeric as he tried to dodge the incoming shots, but accidentally ran to a wall, and was splatted; Navy stayed there until the life preserver appeared, and helped his coworker. 

Across the area they had to work on, Hunter and Emperor were dealing with a Flyfish and a Scrapper, the latte constantly running into them whenever they tried to throw bombs into the baskets of the Flyfish. “Just shoot the Scrapper, would you?” Emperor snapped, and Hunter did as he was told; he quickly turned his fire onto the Scrapper, and watched Emperor roll behind it. The fire from Hunter had kept it steady, while Emperor had actually hit the annoying salmonid that hid behind the armour. 

With that finally out of the way, Hunter quickly ran the three eggs to the basket, while Emperor stayed behind to toss a bomb into one of the Flyfish’s baskets. By the time Hunter had returned from running the last egg back, the Flyfish was downed, and three more golden orbs floated to the ground. As they approached the basket, Emperor could see what could only be described as a mess, with Tumeric and Navy running away as fast as they could. 

Emperor stood on some metal grating and watched with a smirk on his face, those two certainly weren’t cut out for the job. His face fell slightly as he realized they were running straight towards him. Before he could react, the two boys ran past him, Tumeric’s shoulder accidentally caught him in the side, and Emperor fell off the grating, right into the water. 

Tumeric and Navy exchanged a look of fear and panic, but continued to run away, leaving Hunter behind to deal with all the salmonids that were chasing them. “Really guys?” He muttered as he began to weed out the cohocks; he’d have to talk with Navy later about maybe not working future shifts. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a life ring down below, a quick bomb toss had Emperor revived. The king was not happy, a scowl had found it’s way onto his face, and Hunter worried for a moment if he’d have to rescue the two from Emperor. 

“I will kill those two,” the king muttered, and Hunter took it as his cue to step in. He hopped off the platform he was on and ran after the two, directing them to go clean up the chum at the shoreline. “Where are they?”

Hunter held up his hands in defence. “They’re doing their job, cleaning up the chum at the shore. You can berate them later, just help me with these stragglers?” Emperor huffed in annoyance, he supposed he could deal with the two short inklings later. 

Later never arrived, as when they finally returned to Inkopolis, both Tumeric and Navy left the shop immediately, for different reasons; Navy knew he was in trouble, and had no intention sticking around, he just wanted to go home. Tumeric, however, bounded outside, and ran right into the arms of a waiting octoling. 

“Suede, Suede, Suede!” The yellow inkling almost yelled as the octoling tried his best to kiss him. “You’ll never guess what happened! I gotta work there again!” Hunter had come out in time to see the inkling and octoling embracing, and thought it quite cute; he’d had the impression that Tumeric was just a loud kinda guy, but that octoling, he looked shy. 

“Huh,” he said to himself, before he headed off to grab something from Crusty Sean’s.


End file.
